“I thought I was going to die,” Adam Melanson says about his Dec. 2023 arrest. Multiple officers pinned him to the ground, punched him repeatedly, and one used the banned “knee-on-neck” restraint. A year later, his charges of assaulting and obstructing a police officer were fully withdrawn after coming to an agreement with crown prosecutors. This is part of a larger pattern, argues Dalia Awwad.

Since the beginning of Israel’s genocide, it appears the Toronto Police Service’s (TPS) role has been to criminalize, vilify, surveil, and brutalize the masses showing up in solidarity with Palestine. The harm the state is trying to inflict through TPS is multifaceted, physically through beatings, psychologically through surveillance and harassment, and materially through doxxing and criminalization.

Readers could easily read Vincent’s article and still believe the false claim that 40 babies had been killed.

So, why won’t The Star issue a correction for such a widely weaponized false claim?

The paper regularly issues corrections on page 2 of its print edition. These sometimes include much more mundane matters, such as clarifying how much tax increases might affect hotel fees.

We asked Himelfarb and Vincent whether they are putting the “Palestine exception” into action, meaning disregarding normal editorial practices when it comes to their coverage of Palestine.

City law mandates a minimum temperature of 21 C in winter but lacks a similar rule for cooling in summer. While air-conditioned apartments must stay below 26 C, this standard doesn’t apply to units without air conditioning.

The proposed bylaw, which will go before city council on Dec. 17, would require landlords to maintain indoor temperatures in rental units below 27 C. If approved, the regulation will take effect on April 30, 2025, in time for summer.

The Works is a long-standing harm reduction clinic and it became home to the first permanent safe injection site in Toronto in 2017.

In August, it was announced the injection site at The Works was set to close after the province moved to ban all supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres. The Works is currently located at 277 Victoria St., which is in close proximity to the Early Learning Centre in Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Kerr Hall West.

Yadollahi told TorontoToday the union was notified by the city about the impending layoffs two weeks ago, but the workers themselves have not yet received formal layoff notices. When CUPE79 was informed about the layoffs, the city referenced the provincial government’s decision to close supervised consumption sites as the reason for the job cuts.

Instead of laying off these workers, Yadollahi told reporters the city should move them to new positions when the safe injection site closes. “The city can redeploy workers … without eliminating their positions,” she said. “There are a lot of opportunities within public health… and I think these workers have the ability to fill in those gaps.”

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Teams of fare inspectors in plain clothes began patrolling the transit system and issuing tickets on Wednesday as part of the TTC’s efforts to reduce the estimated $140 million lost to fare evasion each year.

All plain clothes inspectors are carrying ID and are equipped with body-worn cameras to record customer interactions, the transit commission said in a release.

It added that inspectors will use discretion, whether in uniform or plain clothes, to ensure tickets are predominantly issued in cases of "willful evasion".

Tickets for not paying for a bus, streetcar or subway ride range from $235 to $425 depending on the nature of the offence. That money goes to the courts, not directly to the transit service.

The transit service said the approach was previously tested in 2018 and re-introduced three weeks ago with plain-clothes inspectors "educating" those found to be riding illegally.

The move to now begin writing tickets is part of a pilot project that will be reevaluated in January, according to TTC media relations.

I'd like to know more about how they estimate financial losses due to fare evasion

There's still time to catch it if you're around.

If you want to catch the next one, head to their page and keep an eye.

This month's Critical Mass bike ride is starting at High Park. Unfortunately they only use Facebook to organize, but the poster is directly from them.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2246288900/posts/10162445064058901/
https://www.facebook.com/events/556394547111834
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hP4SaZjHB6Ltvbeg9

Fight for Bikes is meeting on the South Lawn of Queen's Park on Saturday 23rd at 2pm. After a few speeches at the park, we will split into three groups to bike down University, Yonge and Bloor. Bring your bikes if you have them!

An amendment, tabled and passed on Thursday, gives the government and contractors it taps to tear bike lanes out on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue protection from lawsuits, including if someone is injured on those roads.

The last-minute amendment gives the government the ability to remove bike lanes from the entirety of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue, not just the most controversial parts the government has talked about.

Sarkaria said it was possible the routes could be removed in their entirety — but a final decision had not yet been made.

“We’ll examine the entire stretch to see which parts — ultimately all of it could be removed,” he said on Thursday.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22303445

Quebecor’s Freedom Mobile has launched a new campaign on Thursday, with the lengthy hashtag #EndOverpricedRoamingFeesNow, to challenge ‘Big 3’ incumbents, Rogers, Telus and Bell, on their costly roaming charges.

Direct link to the petition: https://chng.it/qdc9hbcx5Z

The campaign encourages Canadians to sign a Change.org petition and demand fairer pricing from our dominant telecoms.

The move comes after the CRTC requested these companies to address complaints about high roaming fees. Despite the pressure, Rogers, Telus and Bell defended their daily roaming rates, which can cost Canadians as much as $16 per day while traveling, saying their pricing is competitive.